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Forward March Hare
Forward March Hare is a 1952-animated Looney Tunes cartoon released in 1953 featuring Bugs Bunny. Bugs is accidentally drafted in the army, and then causes havoc with his sergeant. The title relates to the March Hare. This is one of a handful of shorts in which Bugs is not in his usual trickster role. Plot The mailman has delivered a letter to "B. Bonny" (Bertram Bonny), but when the truck pulls out, the exhaust from the tailpipe causes the letter to drift out of the mailbox and drop into Bugs Bunny's hole. Bugs, in the middle of his morning workout (including a brief workout of his ears), eventually sees the letter and assumes it's for him. On reading the letter, he gets shocked: "Holy cats, I've been drafted!" Bugs' going through the Army induction center only causes some small reactions (with the exception being the man checking each person's X-Ray, who immediately diagnoses himself as "overworked" when seeing Bugs' X-Ray). He passes the eye exam with flying colors from the first letter right down to the microscopic "Reg. U.S. Pat. Off." disclaimer at the bottom of the chart. Once in the army, though, he quickly causes problems. His shoes are too big, so when his Sergeant calls for the men lined up to "about face!", Bugs accidentally knocks the rest of the line over like bowling pins. .The Sergeant calls Bugs forward, where Bugs introduces himself as "Private Bugs Bunny, reporting as ordered, your majesty!". The Sergeant doesn't believe it's really Bugs, and dryly refers to himself as "Sergeant Porky Pig." However, his Colonel, referring to himself as "Colonel Putty Tat", tells the Segeant that "General Tweety Pie was asking about you, Sergeant." On inspecting Bugs, Bugs quickly knocks the Colonel over with his large shoes. Bugs and his commanding officer - now noticeably demoted to Sergeant from Sergeant First Class - take a long hike that sees both of them crawling back to their bunk (at "Camp Ono") in the middle of the night. Bugs finally lies down in his bunk, but is woken by Reveille. Bugs, intending to "moider that bugler!", runs with a baseball bat and smashes the record player to bits. He then takes a bath, using the Colonel's helmet as his bathtub! When the Sergeant notices this, he throws Bugs out and runs off with the helmet full of soapy water - only to run into the Colonel. Now demoted to Corporal rank, Bugs' officer has Bugs 'dress' the chickens for dinner - though Bugs has them all dressed in tuxedoes ("Where are they eatin'?"). Bugs then tries nailing a calendar to the wall above his bunk using a large ammunition shell (causing the neighbouring soldiers to flee). The Corporal runs up just in time to almost get hit with the shell when it goes off - but the shell drives a hole clean through the Colonel's helmet while the Colonel is wearing it! Now reduced in rank to Private, Bugs' former commanding officer asks the bunny what he's got against him. He finally realizes that "We've inducted a rabbit!" and runs off to find the Colonel. When told by the Colonel (whom Bugs refers to as "General, sir") that he can't be part of the armed forces, Bugs asks what a patriotic rabbit can do. The Colonel tells Bugs there is something he can do - Bugs is then seen testing ammunition shells (similar to the one he accidentally fired) by striking the top with a mallet and marking them as 'DUD' when they don't explode. Bugs then tells the audience, "And just think! In thirty years, I can retire!" Gallery Availability *VHS - Stars of Space Jam: Bugs Bunny *DVD - Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4 Trivia * Although Porky Pig, Sylvester and Tweety do not appear in this cartoon, their names are mentioned when the army officers refer each other by these names to Bugs (although Sylvester is mentioned as "Putty Tat" and Tweety is mentioned as "Tweety Pie"). * This cartoon was reissued (but not given new titles) on May 24, 1969, two weeks before "Rabbit Stew and Rabbits Too!" was released.http://web.archive.org/web/20131224213337/http://www.davemackey.com/animation/wb/hkbh.html References External Links *Forward March Hare at SuperCartoons.net Category:Looney Tunes Category:Looney Tunes shorts Category:Merrie Melodies shorts Category:Merrie Melodies Category:Bugs Bunny Category:Bugs Bunny shorts Category:Directed by Chuck Jones Category:1950s shorts Category:1950s Category:1950s films Category:Chuck Jones Enterprises Category:Warner Bros. Animation Category:Warner Bros. Cartoons Category:Vitaphone short films Category:1953 films Category:1953 shorts Category:Shorts Category:Animated shorts Category:Films Category:1953